Ryan Adams – To Be Without You (Chords)

This is my song of the year so far. Absolutely heartbreaking. Who knew it was possible to be this sad about Mandy Moore?

There’s an interesting little songwriter trick in this song. Each verse ends with the refrain, “Nothing really matters any more.” On every verse but the third this is sung over the F – Eb9 – Bb progression. But the third verse is a line shorter so the, “Nothing really matters anymore,” is sung over Gm7. It’s a subtle change that introduces variety into the song.

Suggested Strumming

Here’s a simple strum that will get you all the way through the song:

d – d – d u d u

In the intro: Play that 8 times on F.

In the verse: Twice on each chord up until the F – Eb9 – Bb progression at the end of the verse. Just once each there.

Twiddly Bits

The solo starts and ends with a classic country rock move. You hold down the top two strings (at the eighth fret here) then while those notes are still ringing you bend the third string at the seventh fret. On guitar you’d usually bend up a tone (which would create a major chord triad). That’s a bit of a problem on ukulele since bending it that much would push it off the fretboard. So I’m only bending it up a semitone. Which creates a minor chord. Making it a bit more bluesy than countryish.